Genjutsu
by Sammery
Summary: Sakura, Sai and Naruto fall victim to a genjutsu that gives them a greater understanding of each other.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Genjutsu

There was no breaking it.

Sakura struggled with the genjustu that they had been thrust into. Naruto and Sai stumbled about next to her, stuck in the same LSD trip of a landscape.

That was when the noises started.

At first it was just nonsensical creaming or groaning or crying.

But then the words started to filter in. And it didn't take the medi-nin long to place the voices that she was hearing. They were the voices of people of their village. Angry voices, callous voices, and she even heard in there the voice of her own mother, usually gentle with a hint of an edge but here it was sharp enough to raise blood.

A crushing pain filled her head and Sakura clamped her hands against the side of her head, applying pressure from the outside as though it would alleviate the growing pressure within. Then the oddest sensation followed and made Sakura feel like she needed to puke. The only way she could describe it would be to say that it was as though _fingers_ were physically carding through her brain, riffling through for information as though she was a living breathing filing cabinet.

Then the fingers stopped and she had but a moment to take a breath before they tugged. Hard. Pulling whatever information that had selected from her as simply as she pulled a patient's chart back in the hospital.

The blackness of the back of her eyelids exploded into a dizzying array of colors and she went stumbling about again, colliding hard with one of the boys and slamming to the ground but unable to get her wits about her enough to brace herself or break her fall.

"Everyone alright?" Naruto's raspy voice questioned softly a moment later. His voice was farther away, so she must have collided with Sai she reasoned, forcing herself to sit up even as her body rebelled, with her breakfast threatening to make a reappearance and making a good show of it as well.

A deep and pounding laughter reverberated through her chest, maniacal and with only the faintest grip on sanity.

"Soon you will be rocked with torment, by experiencing the torment of others. You will have to endure the worst memories of your comrades…ones only endured because they were so young as to not realize the reality of their situation. How will your adult mind fair I wonder…?"

With a jerking feeling, as though someone had clasped their hand around her wrist, Sakura was jerked forward through what she had thought before to be a floor but she plunged through it as though it was no more than a pool of water.

Suddenly she was released from the pulling sensation and crumbled to the ground, not having any reference with which to right herself upon release.

The air shimmered around her and the plain walls of a small room; scarcely more than a cell came into view. She was suddenly aware of the startling fact that the walls were more solid that she was. Her hand held aloft in front of her face, Tsunade's apprentice was entranced at the ability to see the empty desk on the other edge of the room _through_ her own hand.

The walls were an off white. The only furniture in the room was a plain wooden desk with a chair tucked under _exactly_ in the middle and a small dresser with two drawers on the adjacent wall. In the corner behind her was a bed roll with a thin pillow neatly folded, waiting for night time for the room's occupant to lay it out on the floor, taking up the rest of the floor space.

Suddenly the door to her right was thrust open, outward into the hallway because there really wasn't enough room to open it into the room. Years of training and instinct had Sakura hunching over and pivoting ready to face whatever would come in the door, but all that happened was a small, dark-hair child stumbled into the room and had to catch himself on the opposing wall.

The child turned, back against the wall, hands splayed trying to hold himself up on trembling legs.

With startling realization, Sakura understood that this was Sai. The emotionless shell of a human who struggled now to have anything remotely close to a normal human reaction to any situation she had yet seem him presented with. But here he was a child – maybe all of three years old, sniffling with tears escaping down his face, anything _but_ emotionless. It was clear that the boy was scared, terrified even.

A shadow crossed the boy's face and Sakura glanced at the door again and in stalked Danzo, the mummy wanna-be himself. "You will stop crying." He ordered.

Sai sniffled and tried to stop, but he wasn't able to, the fear was too much.

Almost too quick for Sakura to follow, the old man whipped out his walking cane and slammed it down into the soft area between Sai's neck and right shoulder. Sai slammed to the ground, one leg bent awkwardly under him while the other stuck out in front of him, as Sai's face now betrayed his pain and shock.

"You will show nothing."

WHACK!

"You will feel nothing."

WHACK!

"You are a tool."

WHACK!

"You are empty."

WHACK!

"You are nothing."

WHACK!

It repeated itself over and over again. Over and over Danzo would say something and bring the stick down on some part of Sai's body.

After 10 minutes, the gasps and shouts and yelps of protest died away.

After 20 minutes, Sai's body ceased to even flinch anymore or in any way physically acknowledge the continued blows.

But it took an hour. A full hour for the last tear to escape.

And there was Sai, lying bruised and boneless on his side, not moving, eyes staring at the wall in front of him but not seeing anything.

Danzo smirked down at the crumbled form with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. "Good. Very good. I'll see you again tomorrow."

Danzo left the room, shutting the door with a harsh slam that drew no reaction from the beaten child.

Sakura ached for him. She shed her tears still. She wished that she was more solid and could use her hard-earned skills to aid his young body in healing, or at least be able to pull over the blanket so the child would not succumb to the chill that was taking hold of the room now.

"Oh Sai…"

The tugging sensation was back and Sakura found herself drifting through the nether again, unable to even think about resisting because she was so disheartened after seeing that happen to Sai. No wonder he was socially inept. No wonder he didn't know how to relate to people, how to talk to someone, how to relate to anything. She had no doubt that Danzo returned the next day and did exactly the same thing. And every day until Sai gave no reaction to the first hit. How long did it take she wondered? How long do you need to completely remove someone's humanity? How long did it take to turn someone into a living robot?

Sakura clunked against the ground against and felt the sensation of dirt beneath her legs and she raised her head weakly to look around…

…and was surprised.

Around her were the happy sights and sounds of a Festival. Colorful lanterns were strung through the streets. Families held squealing children who pointed in wonder at the fantastical costumes that entertainers were wearing. Food vendors outdid themselves, cooking at their highest level caught up in the revelry of the whole occasion.

Sakura glanced about, eyes out for Sai or Naruto, but she couldn't see them. She did however see herself. A young Sakura, maybe six or seven years old was standing between her mother and father, twirling in a pretty pink kimono with tiny blue flowers dotted throughout.

Her father ducked into a shop nearby while her mother was busy talking to another townsperson. Sakura didn't mind that they weren't paying attention to her, she was too excited about her new kimono.

The child her saw Naruto before the adult version. The little blond boy was standing alone in front of a class case of a bakery, looking at the treats in the window.

With a heavy sigh, far too heavy for a child that small, he turned away.

Clutched tightly in his hand was a small flower, a daisy likely picked from a nearby park.

Child-Naruto saw child-Sakura and his face lit up. His copyrighted smile, that forces his cheeks so high that his eyes force themselves shut, spread across his face revealing a few missing teeth in the process.

Adult-Sakura noticed that Naruto glanced around, locating Sakura's parents and noting that they had not noticed his presence.

He jogged over quickly and presented Sakura with the flower. "You look pretty Sakura-chan!"

She had accepted the flower and in a tiny voice that Sakura couldn't imagine ever coming out of her mouth, "Thank you!" And the tiny her had put the flower into her hair over her left ear. "Look good?"

He nodded frantically. "Looks perfect."

"Sakura!" Her mother's voice shrilled, suddenly tugging on child-Sakura's shoulder. "We need to go!" She tugged the child away and she waved back at Naruto who stayed in his place, smiling back at the young girl.

And she knew what was coming. Suddenly the memory came rushing back, what happened next flooded her mind and she cringed. She watched as her mother snatched the pretty little daisy from her hair and tell her loudly to "Stay away from that boy!" before tossing the flower on the ground. Little Sakura then didn't see it, but older Sakura did. Saw the crestfallen look that slipped over Naruto's face. Saw the little hands at his side balling up and saw his tiny little white teeth biting down on his bottom lip. A blush of humiliation darting across the tops of his cheeks.

He turned and ran down the street somehow managing to dodge around people even though his chin was buried into his chest.

She took off after him on instinct. This was his story after all.

But soon enough she wished she hadn't followed. Not only did she not want to see what ended up happening, but she was sure that Naruto wouldn't have wanted her to have seen it either.

Naruto had failed to dodge around a particularly burly villager – one who had been enjoying his drink thoroughly so far at the festival. Naruto was being held up in the air, a hand holding the fabric behind his neck as the man looked at him as though trying to place what the boy was.

Naruto meanwhile was having breathing issues, his little hands clutching at the fabric neck of his shirt trying instinctively to loosen it, while kicking out with his legs that were too little to actually hit the man.

"Lemme….guh…go…" He managed to shriek, startling the man into dropping the struggling child.

Naruto heaped on the ground, coughing as air suddenly rushed into his lungs.

"You're the brat!" The man bellowed, suddenly placing Naruto in his alcohol-addled mind. "The fox!"

The area around them hushed suddenly as the man violated the taboo against speaking about anything having to do with the nine-tails. Naruto however was too busy confirming that he could still breathe to pay attention to the man.

Sakura watched as it happened. She saw the surprise morph into fear and slip into hatred on the man's face. She saw a vein just at his temple begin to pulse. The beer in his hand was thrown to the ground, splashing against Naruto who looked up disgusted as the smell hit him.

The most heartbreaking part though, was the look of almost acceptance on Naruto's face as he took in the person in front of him. The little boy knew what was about to happen, and it didn't surprise him at all.

A couple of the onlookers winced at the man's ham of a fist connected with Naruto's stomach, sending the boy rolling several feet, spitting out bile that had risen up from the sudden strike.

Anger grew in Sakura and the fabric of her gloves creaked as she watched on, helpless to do anything else. If it had been any other child someone would have done something. If it had been any other child the onlookers would have rushed to his aid.

But it wasn't any other child.

It was Naruto - the boy cursed with the Kyuubi.

It was Naruto – Konoha's greatest regret.

It was Naruto – a drunken man's human punching bag.

Naruto stopped responding after the second hit and just let the man go, laying on the road. He missed Naruto most of the time, or barely nicked him, most of them burying into the ground.

The man bored quickly and spit down at Naruto, this time unfortunately hitting the mark, before sauntering off, proud of himself apparently.

Naruto lay there for a while afterwards. No one approached him. None of the adults who had witnessed the attack and been unwilling to help then were willing to step forward now either.

Sakura approached the form and saw the sadness in the little boy's eyes and a question. A simple question that he had to have spent his entire childhood asking himself: why? Why him? Why did this happen to him?

After a few minutes, when it became apparent that no one else was going to pile on to the beat down, Naruto shoved himself to his feet, wrapping his arm gingerly around his middle and Sakura figured from the way that he was clutching his side, that he had taken some damage to his ribcage.

Naruto shuffled his way home slowly, taking back roads the entire time which were likely to be free and clear during a festival where everyone is flocking to the main streets.

The sun had fully set by the time that Naruto made it home. Sakura knew that Naruto had lived on his own before graduating academy, but she hadn't realized that he had been on his own so young. Little Naruto pushed up on his toes pushing three locks into place on his door.

Naruto silently trudged to the kitchenette of his one-room apartment and pushed his lone chair over to the fridge. He stood up on top of the chair and opened the freezer on the top and pulled out a Ziploc bag that had ice inside. Sakura noticed that there were a couple of these prepared and ready in the freezer before the door closed itself again.

The blonde shuffled down the chair and pushed it back to the table and Sakura noted idly that everything in the apartment was in place. Things weren't strewn about on the floor like you would expect in a young boy's room. Naruto didn't have much but what he did have was taken care of and put away to show how much he cared for his things.

Naruto wrapped the ice bag in a towel he tugged from a drawer next to the sink. He laid down on the bed, on his back setting the wrapped ice pack next to his ribcage on the bed and shifted closer to his, hissing when the cold penetrated his t-shirt and to his likely bruised ribs.

When he found a position that didn't hurt, Naruto finally settled down and took a deep breath. Adult-Sakura was crying. To see a child suffer is bad enough. For it to be her friend – it was like the bottom of her stomach dropped out. She wanted to run over and hug the child, to rub his hair away form his forehead in that soothing way that parents do for their children and she knew that he had never felt. She wanted to wrap her arms around the tiny shoulders and tell him that it was going to be okay. That things would get better one day. He would have friends, he would be an amazing ninja. That he would become someone that the villagers respected and that the children aspired to.

A sniffle broke Sakura's thoughts and it hadn't come from her.

Naruto was crying. Silent tears streamed down his face, making tracks in the dirt that covered his cheeks from his time on the ground.

Fireworks suddenly exploded outside the window Naruto took notice.

His head turned towards the window and it seemed as though his tears flowed faster now. His lips started moving, but Sakura was too far away to hear him over the sound of the fireworks. She knelt down next to the bed and placed her ear close to the small blond and caught the end of what he was singing."

"…happy birthday dear Naruto

Happy Birthday to you…"

Her heart shuddered in her chest. This was the Fire Festival held on October 10th every year. This was the day that the Fourth Hokage bound the Kyuubi within Naruto's newborn body.

And it was Naruto's birthday.

If there was any day that a child should not be alone, it was their birthday.

Naruto dissolved into tears as the room dissolved around Sakura.

Suddenly Sakura was back in the LSD tripping room that they had begun this horrible experience in.

Sai was on his knees on the floor or her left shaking his head but Sakura could see a few tears on his cheeks and she watched the utter shock in his eyes at he placed a trembling fingertip against one of them as though to prove to himself that they were really there.

Naruto pushed himself to his feet on her right and was sending a sympathetic look towards Sai and it occurred to Sakura that he likely saw the same thing that she had.

Sakura felt her blood begin to boil as she saw Sai rise to his feet, shaky and unsteady and totally unlike the Sai that she knew.

Naruto walked over to Sai and put a steadying arm around the pale ninja's back.

Sakura thought about the horrible childhood's that the two must have endured, and how whatever suffering she had experienced had nothing compared to these boys. Her boys. This was her family now. She would die for these boys if necessary. And she would kill for them too. She began to build her chakra determined to bust out of this genjutsu before another cycle were to begin. She was going to bust out of here and she was going to ram this bastard's face in because he was hurting her boys! DAMMIT!

She spiked her chakra suddenly, disrupting the floor and allowing her to drop out of the genjutsu.

She snapped open her eyes, aware instantly that Naruto and Sai were laying collapsed on the ground next to her, still trapped. But she had something to handle first.

She smirked at the shocked face of the stupid missing nin from the Land of Waves who should never have been able to trap them all in the first place. Slamming a mass of chakra into her hand Sakura ran full out at the lanky man who didn't stand a chance, send flying through the air from her powerful fist.

He crumpled after slamming into a boulder with a sickening crack.

The medi-nin turned on her heel and walked back up to the two boys who were sitting on the ground, Naruto kind of starting on with a terrified expression having seen yet another example of Sakura's incredible strength.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto gaped, still staring at the other ninja's prone form.

Even Sai was showing signs of surprise, as difficult as those were to pull to his face. "I think I have the right nickname for you: Scary."

Sakura snorted and plopped to her knees between her teammates and quickly wrapped one arms around each and tugged them in for a hug.

She had known. Intellectually, she has known about their less than ideal childhoods. She had known, but now she _understood_. In her heart she could truly empathize with what they had endured.

Naruto had his goal to become Hokage. Well now Sakura had her goal, to make sure that neither of her teammates ever, _ever_ had to feel that kind of pain again.

Naruto shakily raised his arm after a moment and lightly placed his hand on her back, barely touching as though waiting for the girl to hit him again like she had done so many times in the past.

Sai said nothing, but turned his face into Sakura's shoulder and wrapped his arm around the woman far more readily, almost clinging.

After an amount of time that might have been bordering on indecent, the three separated and settled themselves on their feet. Saying nothing of what had just passed Sakura granted them with a tired smile. It was met with Naruto's trademark big grin, this time with all teeth intact, and got to see the rare sight of a _real_ smile from Sai.

Sakura would meet her goal.

Cha!

Sry - I meant to delete a different story but deleted this one instead so if it seems familiar that's why.


End file.
